Thursday, October 28, 2010

Rhino Poaching Rise Spurs India to Deploy Armed Guards

Wasbir Hussein in Gauhati, IndiaAssociated Press

February 6, 2008

Authorities in India's remote northeast will deploy a hundred armed guards to a protected game reserve after poachers killed a rare one-horned rhinoceros—the fourth this year—at the park, a senior official said Wednesday.

"We are alarmed at the seemingly organized poaching by gangs at the Kaziranga National Park," Assam state Forest and Environment Minister Rockybul Hussain said.

An adult male rhino was killed for its horn on Tuesday, less than three weeks after a mother and its calf were brutally killed at the same park.

Growing Demand

Rhino horns are in great demand globally, particularly in Southeast Asia, for use in traditional medicines and supposed aphrodisiacs. They are also used to make decorative dagger handles.

"We have decided to rush 100 armed guards to Kaziranga and to equip the existing forest guards with 200 better rifles to match weapons used by the poachers," Hussain said.

Last month poachers killed a rhino calf and removed its small horn using an ax. A day later, they hacked the horn from its mother, who bled to death two days later. Another animal was killed earlier in January.

"Our veterinarians tried their best to save the bleeding female rhino, but failed. We felt miserable," said park warden S.N. Buragohain.

Kaziranga, about 135 miles (220 kilometers) east of Gauhati, the capital of Assam, has about 2,000 one-horned rhinos out of the estimated global population of 3,000, according to forest officials.

Conservation efforts have led to a rise in the rhino population and they are now found even on the periphery of the park, making them an easier target for poachers.

There was a surge in poaching last year, when 20 rhinos were killed inside the park, compared to just five in 2006.

According to government figures, 650 one-horned rhinos have been killed in Kaziranga in the past 40 years.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.